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Coordinates: 50°16'60?N 3°46'00?W? / ?50.2833, -3.7667
Kingsbridge is a market town and popular tourist hub in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of about 5,800. It is situated at the northern end of the Kingsbridge Estuary, which is a textbook example of a ria and extends to the sea 6 miles south of the town.
[edit] History
The town formed around a bridge which was built in or before the 10th century between the royal estates of Alvington, to the west, and Chillington, to the east, hence giving it the name of Kyngysbrygge ("King's bridge"). In 1219[1][2] the Abbot of Buckfast was granted the right to hold a market there, and by 1238 the settlement had become a borough[1]. The manor remained in possession of the abbot until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when it was granted to Sir William Petre. Kingsbridge was never represented in Parliament or incorporated by charter, the local government being by a portreeve. It lay within the hundred of Stanborough.[3]
Kingsbridge is in fact a combination of two towns, Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke. Dodbrooke was granted its own market in 1257 and had become a borough by 1319. While Dodbrooke was originally considered to be the dominant of the two, Kingsbridge later expanded to include it. The town consists of two ecclesiastical parishes: St. Edmund's in the west and St. Thomas Becket at Dodbrooke in the east. St. Edmund's Church, in mainly Perpendicular style, retains some 13th century features including a font, but was enlarged and reconsecrated around 1414 and was mostly rebuilt in the 19th century. The parish church of St. Thomas Becket displays a particularly well-preserved rood screen, restored in 1897.
The Prince Regent (the future King George IV) considered building his pavilion above nearby South Sands beach before finally settling on Brighton[citation needed].
In 1798 the town mills were converted into a woollen manufactory, which produced large quantities of cloth, and serge manufacture was introduced early in the 19th century. During the 19th century the town had an active coastal shipping trade, shipbuilding, a tannery, other industries and a large monthly cattle market. The chief exports were cider, corn, malt, and slate.[3]
The town centre retains many 18th and 19th century buildings. The Shambles, or market arcade, was rebuilt in 1796 but retains its 16th century granite piers. The former grammar school, now a museum, was founded and built by Thomas Crispin in 1670[1].
[edit] The town today
Kingsbridge has been the main market town in the area for centuries. Its proximity to the spectacular south Devon coast and sailing venues (such as Salcombe) has for more than 200 years also made it a popular destination for tourists and it now lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Apart from its location, its attractions include several restaurants and pubs, a cinema housed in the town hall building, and a museum about the chemist William Cookworthy, who was born in Kingsbridge in 1705.
The town is linked to Plymouth and Dartmouth, Devon by the A379. The town previously had a railway station but the branch line via South Brent, opened in 1893, was closed down in 1963 as part of the Beeching Axe.
Ken Follett's 1989 novel, The Pillars of the Earth, and its 2007 sequel, World Without End, are set in a fictional city of Kingsbridge, also in England, but that otherwise has nothing to do with the real town.
[edit] Famous residents
- William Cookworthy (1705-1780), the discoverer of English china clay and producer of the first English porcelain, was born in the town.
- John Wolcot (1738-1819), poet and satirist who wrote under the name of "Peter Pindar", was born here.
- Naturalist George Montagu (1753-1815), after whom the bird Montagu's Harrier was named, lived before his death at Knowle House, Kingsbridge, having been born in Wiltshire.
- John Scoble (1799– d. after 1867), anti-slavery campaigner in Britain and Canada, was born in Kingsbridge.
- Composer William Henry Squire (1871-1963) was educated in Kingsbridge.
- Architect Vincent Harris (1876-1971) was also educated in the town.
- Maurice Fox-Strangways, 9th Earl of Ilchester (1920-2006), RAF officer and nuclear weapons engineer, was educated here.
- Physicist Sir William Mitchell (1925–2002) was born here.
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. (Some text may have been edited).
[edit] External links
(Source: Wikipedia) |